[Edu-sig] school physics/math courses

[kirby urner]

We do quite a bit with vectors in my Saturday Academy classes,
proposing to cover some of these topics in a Pycon tutorial so geeks
might see how we do it.  Lots of emphasis on real time versus render
time animation techniques, basically game engine versus ray tracer,
using VPython and POV-Ray respectively, Python the glue language,
model-view-controller an organizing heuristic.  This is all high
school level, but then the students I get are self-selecting, so more
interested in this stuff that average we might assume.

Physics is very doable with discrete math concepts, adapting from
continuous math explorations.  The preponderance of evidence would
suggest we live in a discrete, non-continuous universe, or in any case
enough of a case might be made such that students needn't feel
inferior for using digital tools to study science.  We'll still do
closed form integrations and so on.  Where number crunching is
concerned, we're talking limited precision measurements i.e. discrete
numbers again.

Kirby


2008/10/19 Andrew Harrington <aharrin at luc.edu>:
> Math for the Digital Age looks great for getting both discrete math concepts
> and Python into a HS.  That is a very different emphasis than physical
> sciences.  If you are specifically doing physics and other continuous math,
> I would not recommend Math for the Digital Age.  It does not appear to cover
> any concepts used by physical scientists, like vectors and speed.  I'm not
> sure what would be a good Physics+Python intro.  There may be some
> suggestion on the SciPy pages.
>
> Andy
>
> 2008/10/16 michel paul <mpaul213 at gmail.com>
>>
>> This would be a great text for a high school math/CS class:  Math for the
>> Digital Age.
>>
>> - Michel
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 4:15 AM, roberto <roberto03 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> hello
>>> (i am rather new in python ...)
>>>
>>> i am about to start a course of physics and math for students aged
>>> 14-17 (high school)
>>> and i am deeply interested in the possibilty of teaching fundamental
>>> concepts of these subjects via teaching programming;
>>> i chose python (i won't change my mind ...)
>>>
>>> so i am looking for resources on how to deal with these topics via
>>> this great programming language;
>>>
>>> i need some help from you and moreover if you are aware of books
>>> already covering these need
>>>
>>> thank you in advance
>>> --
>>> roberto
>>> OS: GNU/Linux, Debian
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>>
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Andrew N. Harrington
>  Director of Academic Programs
>  Computer Science Department
>  Loyola University Chicago
>  512B Lewis Towers (office)
>  Snail mail to Lewis Towers 416
>  820 North Michigan Avenue
>  Chicago, Illinois 60611
>
> http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh
> Phone: 312-915-7982
> Fax:    312-915-7998
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> aharrin at luc.edu as professor
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